Brie Bella

How can one promotion offer such polarising women’s matches on its big shows – and how is it that the show with the bigger audience produce such a bore-fest while the one with less TV time, less fame and a comparatively weaker storyline leads to the best women’s match on TV for 2014?

Charlotte and Sasha Banks put on what was probably the best Divas (or Knockouts, for that matter) match of the year at NXT Takeover: R Evolution with Charlotte retaining the Women’s Championship with a top rope Natural Selection. Granted, the build-up for the event did not have the same depth or spark as Paige’s NXT Women’s Championship defence against Emma, the title tournament match between Charlotte and Natalya, or Charlotte’s defence against Bayley, which had a hell of a build-up. Instead, this match was the consequence of a lot of elements like Bayley and Charlotte’s respect turning to friendship, Becky Lynch’s heel turn to join Banks as Team BAE and there was a title challenge mixed up in all of that. As far as interaction goes, there was precious little between champion and challenger but Banks’ antagonism has helped to push things along – a prime example being her customisation of Charlotte’s t-shirt so it says “If you’re gonna do it, do it LIKE A BOSS”, which at least showed that there was some real negative feelings between the pair rather than it being the professional rivalries of the other Takeover Women’s Title matches we have seen this year.

However, the slightly soft build-up was compensated by the contest itself. Put in the semi-final position and given 12 minutes, Charlotte and Sasha put together a great story in the match with the titleholder on the backfoot because of Banks using a lot of her own moves against her. It also allowed Charlotte to work as a sympathetic babyface for once and also show some fire in the comebacks. Her highspots also worked well to pop the crowd as she adjusted her top rope moonsault because Sasha moved out of the way by landing on her feet and then hitting a senton for a near-fall, as well as the top rope Natural Selection which looks a lot better than the standard version – but should be saved for special occasions.

After the NXT show – a huge success from top to bottom – there was reportedly some discontent amongst the main WWE roster as they did not want to be outdone. As a consequence, it was said that the TLC pay-per-view would endeavour to be better than Takeover. It failed.

Part of that card was Nikki Bella defending the Divas Championship against former titleholder and recent Slammy-winner AJ Lee. The build-up to this match has elements which stem back to June when Nikki’s sister Brie “quit” WWE in order to protect her husband Daniel Bryan’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship reign, which came to an end anyway. That in turn led to Nikki Bella being victimised by Stephanie McMahon, Brie getting reinstated and wrestling Stephanie, though losing when Nikki turned heel. The pair then fought at Hell in a Cell with Nikki winning and making Brie her personal assistant for 30 days, leading to Brie turning heel to gift her sister the Divas Championship at Survivor Series when Nikki pinned AJ Lee in less than a minute.

Unfortunately, the Bella feud was an utter dud and produced some of the worst storytelling and acting in a long time and was seemingly written off by Brie’s heel turn – though any sort of reasoning didn’t come until the pre-match interview at TLC, where Brie said she aligned with Nikki because “blood is thicker than water”, and saying that AJ wouldn’t come between them – though she had never tried, so I don’t see how that was any sort of point. The Bella storyline is the dirt worst, though there has been a glimmer of success in that Nikki has got reasonably better in the ring and her character has improved. However Brie has gone backwards at an amazing rate as her wrestling is sucky and her character and acting are unbelievably wooden and hokey.

The build-up to TLC for the Divas had been sparse at best. AJ made Nikki tap out in a tag team match but that was about it. As for the match itself, it was an awkward watch as the spots did not flow and a lot of the moves which you would hope have a great impact lacked any sort of gravity. You could say that their position on the show didn’t help as it followed John Cena v Seth Rollins but a match can still be good even if the fans aren’t into it. Unfortunately this did not have the fans support and didn’t do much to elicit a reaction. When you consider that the ending came when Nikki hit a Rack Attack after spraying AJ in the face with some sort of substance while the ref was sending Brie away from ringside for interference, it felt really flat.

There’s a yawning chasm between the title picture in NXT and on the main WWE roster. While NXT has minimal women, just one writer and a small segment during a weekly one hour show to push a story, it’s amazing to think that it’s outdoing the army of writers on the main roster, coupled with how there is a combined seven hours of TV to put together a number of segments to push a story. In all honesty, if I was a developmental talent wanting to have good matches which demonstrate my abilities as a wrestler and a character, I’d be wanting to stay in NXT for as long as possible before going into the main roster and collecting the extra payoffs and merchandising deals while having my enthusiasm for excelling ebbing away, one Raw at a time.

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Got any news, results or upcoming events that you want to tell everyone about? Are you a female wrestler looking to tell us about upcoming bookings? Are you a fan who went to a show and saw a match, and would like to tell others about it – what you liked, what you didn’t and would like to encourage others to check it out for themselves? Would you want to discuss your feelings on any particular subject about women’s wrestling as part of The Soap Box? Send us an email!

Also, we add loads more links, video and thoughts on women’s wrestling on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like and follow us for even deeper coverage.

Meanwhile, if you want one of our t-shirts, click here and pick which shop is best for you. We have stores for the US/Canada (which also ships to Australia) and one for the UK and mainland Europe. Check out the Wrestling Yay, SHIMMER Like A Girl and No Limits 2.0 designs, as well as the Evielution and Free AK47 shirts which we are selling at cost price, and the brand new I Am Not A Bad Person and WoMan Up shirts.

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WWEPrior to the NXT Takeover R Evolution show, Triple H led a conference call when he seemed to distance himself from the booking on last week’s Raw where Natalya pinned Charlotte on the latter’s Raw debut. Former TNA Knockout Santana “Brittany” Garrett was also in attendance backstage at the NXT show… AJ Lee reportedly needed treatment after being sprayed in the eyes at the end of her unsuccessful title challenge against Nikki Bella at TLC on Sunday. WWE revealed that she was tended to by trainers in what was described as a “scary incident”. The company’s website said that AJ suffered chemical conjunctivitis but they were able to flush her eyes with saline and that there shouldn’t be any long term damage to her vision… Naomi has confirmed that she will not be a part of Total Divas’ third season… Alicia Fox has revealed that she has returned to education and that she was preparing for an anthropology exam. She also teamed with Natalya on last night’s Raw to beat the Bella Twins. Natalya made Brie tap out to the Sharpshooter, but her husband Tyson Kidd spent the post match checking on Nikki on the outside, which angered Nattie.

North America
Nevaeh was injured at last Wednesday’s Rockstar Pro show. She’s confirmed that she sprained her knee and may also have torn her MCL. She was in a big leg brace last week and may need an MRI. All the best to her… Crazy Mary Dobson defeated Amazing Kong in the main event of Premiere Destination Wrestling’s show on Thursday… Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae retained the Pro Wrestling Guerilla Tag Team Championship on Friday when the defeated Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels… Kc Spinelli was unsuccessful in winning the Magnificent Championship Wrestling Women’s Title on Saturday. She beat titleholder Holly Madison but it was by DQ, so Madison retained the belt… Vanessa Kraven won a 5-way elimination match on Sunday’s Smash Wrestling show, beating Xandra Bale, Veda Scott, Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb. The Kimber Bombs were pinned simultaneously by Kraven to end the match following stereo chokeslams. After the show, the promotion revealed its 2014 with Cherry Bomb doing very well – she won Women’s Wrestler of the Year, her match teaming with Kimber against Courtney Rush and Xandra Bale from this year’s CanUSA Classic was voted Women’s Match of the Year… SHIMMER’s next DVD tapings will take place on the weekend of April 11 and 12. The promotion says front row tickets (which are only to be sold on a weekend deal and not for individual days) will be slightly increased, saying “the reason for which will be obvious by the time the shows take place”. It has also said it’s looking into the feasibility of a show on WrestleMania weekend, but not decision has been made. However, there will be women’s event as part of the WWNLive Experience on March 28… Kacee Carlisle’s first Valkyrie Women’s Wrestling Title defence will be against Mistress Belmont on January 23… Athena will return to SHINE for the SHINE 24 show on January 23.

Japan
Nobody won the Women’s Wrestling honour at the Tokyo Sports Awards last week. Io Shirai picked up 6 votes, while Syuri got 3 – neither got enough to win… Speaking of Syuri, she defeated Marcela by 2 falls to 1 on Thursday’s REINA show to win the CMLL World Women’s Championship. Syuri won falls 1 and 3 to end Marcela’s 1,008 day reign with the title… It was announced at Pro Wrestling WAVE’s show on Sunday that Shuu Shibutani will end her career on May 3. Debuting in September 2004, the 35 year old has won WAVE’s Tag Team Championship and Ice Ribbon’s Triangle Ribbon title. Ayako Hamada & Yuu Yamagata made their first successful defence of the WAVE Tag Team Championship in the main event of the three shows held on the day, beating Cherry & Shuu Shibutani.

Europe
Viper’s Electric Chair Drop was enough to score her the Full Tilt Wrestling Women’s Championship. She and Bete Noire were fighting over the vacant title… Chanel won the vacant Bellatrix British Championship on Saturday when she beat Aurora Flame, Violet O’Hara & Lady Lory to win the one night tournament. Elsewhere on the card, Miss Mina and Saraya Knight went to a time limit draw and Liberty defeated Sammi Baynz. The next Bellatrix show will be on February 22… Sammii Jayne v Layla Rose will take place Insane Championship Wrestling’s December 21 show in Glasgow, Scotland… Nikki Storm and Pollyanna will wrestle at the debut Empress Pro show on January 17… Former WWE Women’s and Divas Champion Melina is booked for a Southside Wrestling show in April.

Mexico
Sexy Star says that Ivelisse Velez is not a match for her in a AAA ring, calling her a “refugee” in a piece posted on the promotion’s website. She also spoke to Variety Latino in her babyface guise to promotion Lucha Underground, reiterating that wrestling saved her from suicide due to depression and pointing out how the promotion is the only one on TV in the US which has intergender wrestling.

• Since then, there has been no explanation as to why Brie turned heel, with us just having to accept that they’re reunited again. Meanwhile, little has been done to hype the rematch except for AJ tapping out Nikki with the Black Widow on the December 1 Raw as part of a tag team match.

• Before this contest, the Bellas were part of a backstage interview where they wrote off their three-month feud by saying that “blood is thicker than water”. Okay then.

The Match

• Nikki avoided the lockup and scooted to the outside for some final warm-ups and was sent out again by a headscissors by AJ. The challenger went outside to go after her opponent, fighting off Brie at the same time – though was punished with a spine buster by Nikki, who then took the advantage.

• Bella went after AJ’s back by wrapping her around the ringpost before stretching her with a surfboard and a rear chinlock, with AJ trying to fight back with a guillotine choke – though both women ended up being grounded with a double clothesline. When both women regained their feet it was AJ who took over with a Thesz press, corner avalanche and a neck breaker for a two count, before connecting with a tornado DDT for another near fall.

• Another corner charge saw AJ come unstuck and Nikki hit her with an elbow then hit a springboard roundhouse kick, though AJ almost scored the win with a wheelbarrow bulldog before hitting the Shining Wizard. However, Brie intervened to put her sister’s foot on the ropes to stop the pinfall. However, while the ref was ejecting Brie, Nikki sprayed something in AJ’s eyes before hitting her big forearm and nailing the Rack Attack for the victory.

Thoughts

• The crowd did not care a jot for this match, and to be honest, they were right for doing so. With no real developments between the parties involved since Survivor Series and the Bella feud being botched is so many ridiculous ways, there was no reason to be enthused about the match.

• Before discussing the action, I must point out Brie’s work on the outside. it was piggin’ awful. Her mannerisms, verbiage and actions were wooden, forced and pretty cringeworthy. I don’t think any other wrestler has devolved as much as Brie has in 2014.

• As for the contest itself, it felt awkward and mushy in a lot of places. The opening headscissors was soft, the wheelbarrow bulldog was awkward and it just felt disjointed all the way though. It seems like AJ and Nikki don’t have any real chemistry together. A nothing match which didn’t matter and was just there.

Rhia O’Reilly has been plugging away for a while now and it seems that 2014 has been the year where it has started to come to fruition. With a nomadic aspect, the 29-year old has never really rooted herself in any promotion but has made appearances in numerous outfits. While she has been the focal point of PROGRESS Wrestling’s women’s division – enjoying a win streak until it was put to an end at the hands of Pollyanna Peppers – it has always been Pro Wrestling: EVE with whom O’Reilly has had the greatest ties. She made her official debut on the promotion’s first show in May 2010 and has worked on every show, including after the promotion’s integration with XWA Wrestling a few months ago. It therefore seems fitting while she has enjoyed a reign with th Bellatrix British Championship that her first top championship is the EVE belt.

Wearing a bright green dress and sporting a little top hat, Rhia was every inch the Irish leprechaun when she started out. Cutting her teeth in EVE, World Association of Wrestling and Extreme World Wrestling, she found herself across the Atlantic less than a year after her debut. Taking her gear to Berwyn, IL, O’Reilly found herself working two pre-show matches ahead of the SHIMMER tapings in March 2011, losing to Brittany Force in singles competition and teaming with Jett Riley to defeat Force and December the following day.

While it could have been seen as a bit premature, it got her noticed and saw her amongst many of her peers in order to accrue more knowledge and develop. She found herself graduating to the main roster 12 months later and got her first win on the DVD tapings by beating Taylor Made – though it wasn’t necessarily her success rate which caused such a spark with herself and the fans. Instead, it was her simple catchphrase which got her over, with “Oh really? O’Reilly!” becoming so popular that it was being yelled even when she wasn’t wrestling – or wasn’t even on that particular series of tapings. That helped to propel her to being aligned with Saraya Knight and then to form a trio with Mayumi Ozaki on the most recent shows and see her enjoy a victory over the trio of Heidi Lovelace, Solo Darling and Leva Bates, a tag team win over Bates and Veda Scott as well as a singles success against Xandra Bale.

Back in the UK, O’Reilly spent a lot of 2014 harnessing a great rivalry – and then a partnership – with Addy Starr, with the pair wrestling in numerous promotions like LCW Roses and PROGRESS before seeing it move to XWA Wrestling in October. The XWA win led to her being granted another shot at the Pro Wrestling: EVE Title after beating champion Nikki Storm in May last year via DQ – though this time, the contest was made No Disqualification and would guarantee a winner. In the end, a Rhiadjustment DDT onto the belt was enough for O’Reilly to capture the title – though she suffered a fairly serious knee injury in the match which has forced her to cancel bookings for the rest of 2014.

Despite the agony of the ailment, O’Reilly must be wholly satisfied with her year which has seen her go from being a safe hand in the ring to being someone who is receiving genuine focus and investment by promotions, which should help to catapult her to the next level in 2015. Coupled with being in the best shape of her career, sound wrestling skills and a catchphrase which is so beautifully simple and memorable, it looks like Rhia should ascend to new heights next year.

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Tomoka Nakagawa wrestled her final OZ Academy match on Sunday, losing loss to Aja Kong in the main event in Nagoya, Japan. Her final match will be on Thursday, with the 33-year old teaming one more time with her Global Green Gangsters partner Kellie Skater against Hikaru Shida & Kaho Kobayashi.

Since announcing her retirement in June, Nakagawa has been tremendously busy – as is customary with joshis who make their intentions known to quit the wrestling business. With more than 60 matches under her belt since the middle of the year, Tomoka’s busiest months have been the last two, with more than 30 contests in just that 8 week period. Demonstrating her versatility as a tag team wrestler, she has also racked up a few more title wins, claiming the Pro Wrestling WAVE Tag Team Championship for a second and third time as well as claiming the OZ Academy doubles straps with Hiroyo Matsumoto. Meanwhile, Nakagawa is still one half of the SHIMMER Tag Team Champions, which provides a question mark as to what is going to happen with those titles.

With her success in both Japan and the US, Tomoka can be very proud of her accomplishments – as well as ushering in the trend of bringing in young joshis to expand their profiles in America and work with international talents. As one of the original quartet of wrestlers from S-Ovation, she was everyone’s favourite dirty little cheater before turning into a beloved babyface alongside Skater as part of 3G. Nakagawa will be missed.

Got any news, results or upcoming events that you want to tell everyone about? Are you a female wrestler looking to tell us about upcoming bookings? Are you a fan who went to a show and saw a match, and would like to tell others about it – what you liked, what you didn’t and would like to encourage others to check it out for themselves? Would you want to discuss your feelings on any particular subject about women’s wrestling as part of The Soap Box? Send us an email!

Also, we add loads more links, video and thoughts on women’s wrestling on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like and follow us for even deeper coverage.

Meanwhile, if you want one of our t-shirts, click here and pick which shop is best for you. We have stores for the US/Canada (which also ships to Australia) and one for the UK and mainland Europe. Check out the Wrestling Yay, SHIMMER Like A Girl and No Limits 2.0 designs, as well as the Evielution and Free AK47 shirts which we are selling at cost price, and the brand new I Am Not A Bad Person and WoMan Up shirts.

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WWE
Layla and Summer Rae shoved a pumpkin pie in Natalya’s face on last Tuesday’s episode of Main Event in more childish garbage that you wouldn’t expect to see the men do. Natalya beat Layla in a singles match on the show… Charlotte will defend the NXT Women’s Championship against Sasha Banks on December 11’s Takeover: R Evolution show… Nikki Bella’s promo following her win over Emma on last Friday’s SmackDown was slashed by a third, partly because under different circumstances, it could be seen as garnering support. The full promo was: “I’m not going to say trashy, classless things like Ms. Lee did because unlike Ms. Lee, I actually care about the kids that sit in this audience. It’s time that everyone heard the real truth about AJ Lee. Yes, we heard over and over and over again your sob story. Yes, we have heard over and over about how hard you worked. But you wanna know what? I have worked harder. The biggest difference between you and me is that I don’t have to go tell everyone so they like me. And most important, that is what makes me fearless. You wanna know why you don’t have any friends? It’s because you’re so threatened by anyone who doesn’t like you. AJ, I want you to take a good hard look at what a woman is, a real woman, a classy woman! I want you to take a look at what a real Divas champion looks like. AJ, I want you to know that forever, through these fearless eyes, you will always be that pathetic manipulating little girl from New Jersey”… Last night’s Raw did nothing to help explain why Brie turned heel and joined sister Nikki. This storyline still sucks. The twins lost to AJ Lee and Naomi – the latter of whom was chosen to be AJ’s partner as part of a fan vote – when Nikki tapped out to the Black Widow. Noelle Foley also appeared in a segment with father Mick on the show… If you’re keeping track, Alicia Fox worked on the heel team for a six-woman tag match in Springfield, MO on Sunday. The inconsistency behind her character is staggering.

North America
Rosie Lottalove/Betsy Ruth returned to wrestling on Friday under the name of Andrea. She was beaten by La Rosa Negra on a NWA Signature Pro Wrestling show… Mickie James has wrestled her first match since giving birth in September. She defeated Tessa Blanchard on the Queens of Chaos 3 show. Also on the card, LuFisto and Jessicka Havok wrestled to a double count out – with both angling for a return match – and Mia Yim & Leva Bates beat Joey Ryan and Candice LeRae in the main event… Lei’D Tapa wrestled her first match in five months last Saturday when she beat Amazing Kong at WrestleCade… The Kimber Bombs exploded on Saturday’s Beyond Wrestling show when Cherry Bomb teamed with husband Pepper Parks to beat Kimber Lee and Drew Gulak. The women hugged afterwards. Reunited the following day, the Kimber Bombs made it to the semi-finals of Beyond Wrestling’s Tournament for Tomorrow 3 by beating Darius Carter & TJ Marconi, but were eliminated by Eric Corvis & Myke Quest… Mia Yim’s first defence of the SHINE Championship takes place on Friday when she defends the belt against Nevaeh, who has a pinfall win over the new titleholder. In some weird booking, Ivelisse Velez has tumbled down the card and she’s wrestling Amanda Rodriguez, while Amber O’Neal and Crazy Mary Dobson – who were last seen on SHINE with O’Neal turning heel on Dobson – are wrestling Luscious Latasha and Allysin Kay respectively… Heidi Lovelace attempts to become the first female to win CHIKARA’s Young Lions Cup on Saturday when she faces Missile Assault Ant in the tournament final.

Japan
Mio Shirai showed up at a Stardom press conference last week to challenge sister Io to a match for Mio’s self-produced show coming next year. Io – who has had little contact with her sister in the three years since she left the Triple Tails stable – said that she can’t accept as she is under contract to Stardom but if the promotion books her for the match then she will do it… ICEx∞ Tsukasa Fujimoto and JWP Openweight Champion Arisa Nakajima will put their titles on their line against each other in separate matches on December 28. Fujimoto will put her belt up at RibbonMania at Korukuen Hall in Tokyo in the afternoon, and Nakajima’s defence will be later that night at the same venue for Climax 2014… Kaori Yoneyama celebrated 15 years since her debut on Saturday when she teamed with Madoka to beat Tsubasa Kuragaki & PSYCHO.

Europe
Chris Walker called out Pollyanna on Saturday’s Pro Wrestling Chaos show – she came out to confront him but was attacked. Wild Boar made the save… Rhia O’Reilly, she and Addy Starr will face Bete Noire and Viper in the main event of Empress Pro’s debut show on January 17… Danielle Hunter retained her FutureShock Wrestling Women’s Championship on Sunday, beating Australia’s Toni Storm… Southside Wrestling is to introduce a women’s title on February 28. Called the Queen of Southside, it will be contested in a 4-way – so far, Saraya Knight is the only announced participant.

MexicoDark Angel won her eighth CMLL bodybuilding championship on Wednesday… Chavo Guerrero wrestled Sexy Star on last Wednesday’s Lucha Underground show. He got the win via DQ when Sexy hit him with a low blow after the referee seized a chair from her… Ivelisse Velez made her AAA debut on Friday when she was introduced as a technica. She and Faby Apache defeated Sexy Star and Taya Valkyrie. Velez pinned Sexy with an exploder suplex… Estrellita will be out of action for close to a month after suffering a spinal injury in the trios match on Friday’s CMLL show. She was dropped on her head by Dalys with a piledriver and will need to be in a neck collar for two weeks… Marcela will defend the CMLL World Women’s Championship against Syuri in Tokyo, Japan on December 12.

Australia & New Zealand
Kellyanne English beat Savannah Summers on Saturday to win the Warzone Wrestling Women’s Championship… Demi Bennett’s rematch against new Riot City Wrestling Women’s Champion Harley Wonderland will take place this Saturday… Madison Eagles returns to Melbourne City Wrestling on December 13 for the first time in more than three years. She faces KC Cassidy.

Welcome to edition 200 of the Ringbelles Roundup. With its inception taking place before the website was officially launched, the Roundup’s first edition was on February 1, 2011 and was pretty slim. These days, the newsletter is usually between 3,500 and 4,500 words but has swelled to more than 5,000 on certain special occasions. It’s been a big undertaking and I’m proud for it to have been posted every Tuesday, without fail for 200 straight weeks.

To mark the occasion, I’ve thrown the main body of the Roundup open to you. I took to Facebook and Twitter, saying that if there was any question about the website that you wanted answered, I would consider it. With that in mind, here are the queries I received…

– What did you and Stew feel was missing from online coverage of women’s wrestling that inspired you to start the site? – Martin Bentley

Honestly, it was complete coverage. Some site focussed on WWE and TNA with a nod to the indies. Some focussed on joshi and there were others who looked at places like Britain or Mexico – bit nothing really tried to touch every base that it possibly could. We felt that all women’s wrestling, no matter how big or small should be given a spotlight – and that spotlight wouldn’t be on the big guns and let the others try and catch some light. Whatever was most important at that moment got our attention as it was based on merit, not what promotion you find yourself wrestling for.

Granted, we could be better at covering things like lucha and joshi but we do our best to give them focus when we can. We like to think that when it comes to all-women shows around the world, we’re the best place to look, even though we can’t cover everything as there are so many hours in the day and Stew and I always had full-time jobs to balance.

For example, this Roundup isn’t knocked up on the Tuesday, as trying to compile a 4,000 word document on just one day each week would be an impossibility – it needs additions at all times during the week. When you couple that with shows that we attend or cover – with SHIMMER trips being the trickiest – as well as other newsworthy items going on during the week, this is close to being a full-time (unpaid) job.

– How come your audio shows are so much better quality than most others? – Dave Muscarella

If you mean audio quality, we do our best to upload them at a higher bitrate, which is why Women Of Wrestling Podcasts are limited to 90 minutes because of our upload limits these days, which also means that mammoth shows like the Christmas 2012 show with six guests can’t happen again without a dip in quality.

If you mean content-wise, I think it’s because we let the guest do most of the talking. When I listen to some other podcasts – especially the ones presented by former wrestling personalities – I find myself being frustrated by the guests being cut off or overshadowed by a presenter who just has to spout some words of wisdom or a superfluous anecdote. I have a rule that if I choose four random points in a podcast and hear the presenter’s voice more than twice, I give it a miss. Let the guest talk – that’s why you have them on in the first place – and don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions.

We also do a lot of research. We check out histories, key points and also check previous interview with other sites so we’re not raking over the same ground again. Instead, we look for a new spin on a previously covered topic. Stew and I were very proud for coming up with original questions and have often been thanked by guests after recordings for finding new things to discuss.

Finally, structure – instead of just going chronologically through a career we nail key points and try to group subjects together if we can. Nothing we do is really revolutionary – we just wanted to produce interviews that we would like to listen to.

– Why do you only interview people for My Name is if they make the first move? – James

It’s a gesture of intent. My Name Is was designed to be for new faces to introduce themselves to a wider audience or to try and raise your profile to the next level. All we ask is that the wrestler themselves shows that they are ready to boost their own image and we will always roll out the red carpet. After all, if you’re not ready to shout about yourself, why should you expect anyone else to do the same for you?

On a side note, it’s nice to jump back and listen to past MNI interviews and compare it with the position they find themselves in now. Seleziya Sparx and Viper were early interviewees, and look at how great they are now.

– Do you make use of online translators for your Japanese news or do you have a person providing information? – David Falcon

The honest truth is that online translators are a life saver. It’s not the most accurate thing ever as Japanese to English translations are very literal and don’t make much sense as a result but you try to negotiate your way through it. As for the results, sites like Purolove are far better than we could ever be when it comes to joshi – though that site’s in German so the translator still comes in handy.

Incidentally, Ciara is a far stronger follower of joshi that I am and she produces some excellent stuff.

– How do you choose your interviewees? What’s the best podcast you have done and why? Dream interview – if you could interview anyone in the world, who would it be?

We tend to try and schedule WOW Podcast guests based on what they’re going to be doing and make that the centre-point of the interview. The more interesting the activity – as well as their history – makes them a good chat. Fight Like A Girl interviews usually have a stronger focus on what is going on at that particular time but can also tend to go off on tangents, but aren’t a career overview.

I’m not sure about best, but one of my favourites is the second Ivory interview, which was recorded a week after the first. I was late arriving home from work for the interview so Stew spoke to her for a few minutes until I got ready and she didn’t moan or complain – and when I got online she asked me how I was doing and if I’d had a good day at work. This was a former WWE Women’s Champion taking a genuine interest, and I was really touched by it. What followed was a really natural and easy interview which was so much fun to record. I also enjoyed our first Courtney Rush interview and part of the post-show chat was so hilarious that part of it was spliced into the show – if you’re interested, it’s the Meese Are Dicks conversation.

As for dream guest, we have a list of people and they are grouped into certain levels. Ivory was in that list, as are Wendi Richter, Madusa, Stacy Keibler and more. Some are pipe dreams while others felt more realistic. Personally, I’d say Richter would be my top choice, while Stew wanted Missy Hyatt.

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Originally, I wanted the Roundup to be a female version of the Wrestling Observer with some editorial content at the start – I don’t know if I accomplished it but I’m glad that so many people read it every week. There’s nothing else like the Roundup out there at the moment, and I’m glad that there is a one stop document for fans of women’s wrestling to know what’s going in around the world. Thanks to everyone who reads it.

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Got any news, results or upcoming events that you want to tell everyone about? Are you a female wrestler looking to tell us about upcoming bookings? Are you a fan who went to a show and saw a match, and would like to tell others about it – what you liked, what you didn’t and would like to encourage others to check it out for themselves? Would you want to discuss your feelings on any particular subject about women’s wrestling as part of The Soap Box? Send us an email!

Also, we add loads more links, video and thoughts on women’s wrestling on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like and follow us for even deeper coverage.

Meanwhile, if you want one of our t-shirts, click here and pick which shop is best for you. We have stores for the US/Canada (which also ships to Australia) and one for the UK and mainland Europe. Check out the Wrestling Yay, SHIMMER Like A Girl and No Limits 2.0 designs, as well as the Evielution and Free AK47 shirts which we are selling at cost price, and the brand new I Am Not A Bad Person and WoMan Up shirts.

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WWE
Charlotte is booked for the Raw in Greenville, SC on December 9 and the SmackDown tapings the following day in Columbus, GA. She also spoke to the Huffington Post about living up to father Ric’s legacy, saying “The biggest thing holding me back is fear. Being afraid to fail and not live up to such a legacy my dad has made. I do feel the pressure, but I also feel the drive. My dad was really hard on me as a kid in sports, so this is no different”… Alicia Fox got a surprise win on Paige on last week’s Superstars when she caught her former friend in a small package… Becky Lynch pinned Bayley with a handful of tights on Thursday’s NXT… Following on from last week’s Raw when Nikki Bella made sister Brie dress up as AJ Lee for an “exhibition match”, Lee dressed up as Nikki for her win over Brie on SmackDown. Bella won the Divas Title at Survivor Series when Brie kissed AJ to cause the distraction and the quick end. Brie looked happy that her sister had won the belt, and then she beat AJ last night on Raw with the help of Nikki – with AJ zinging the sisters by saying talent is not sexually transmitted as a jibe at Brie’s marriage to Daniel Bryan and Nikki’s relationship with John Cena, seemingly overlooking the irony that AJ herself is married to CM Punk. There was no explanation as to why Brie turned, which – when you take into account how much airtime was dedicated to this heap – must make the Bella feud the most redundant and awful Diva storyline in years. Incidentally, talk that AJ is on her way out of WWE are untrue, according to the Wrestling Observer, that her title loss went as planned (though the participants didn’t know it was to be less than a minute long until the final moments before the match) and it wasn’t done to quickly write her out.

North AmericaStephane Bruyere and NCW Femmes Fatales have parted ways. Writer Pat Laprade will take over the role of Talent Coordinator… Hudson Envy defeated Cheerleader Melissa on Saturday’s Alternative Wrestling Show event to retain the Women’s Championship – only it was by DQ when Melissa refused to stop choking her opponent with her wrist tape… Former WWE Women’s and Divas Champion Beth Phoenix is to be honoured at April’s 50th Annual Cauliflower Alley Club Reunion… Mickie James spoke to the Miami Herald about becoming a mum, saying she had a pretty intense delivery and that she has been getting advice from fellow first-time mum Trish Stratus. She was also asked about a possible return to WWE and was pretty candid: “I think, ‘I’m better than 90 percent of the talent on TV now. Why am I going to step to the side to just train the future?’ I’m not ready to do that, and I’m not trying to be arrogant and self-absorbed. I can see how it can come off that way, but it’s the truth. You look at least 75 percent or at least 80 percent on TV now. I know in my heart of hearts that I can draw more money than them and that I am better than them. I can put more asses in the seats than them”… Melanie Cruise returned from three months in Japan and has struck gold already. She beat Mickie Knuckles on Saturday’s Strong Style Wrestling show to win the vacant Allied Independent Wrestling Federations’ World Women’s Championship… Ivelisse Velez revealed that she has been working with a torn rotator cuff in her shoulder for the last nine years, and hurt her back just before her release from WWE developmental in 2012 and was only given two weeks of rehab, regardless of whether it solved the problem or not. She has also said that her shoulder is slowly recovering… Four more matches have been announced for SHINE 23 to go along with Mia Yim defending her newly-won championship against Nevaeh. Legendary’s Malia Hosaka and Brandi Wine put the Tga Team Championship on the line against the Kimber Bombs; Heidi Lovelace and Solo Darling take on Marti Belle and Jayme Jameson; Taylor Made faces La Rosa Negra and Thunderkitty will battle Leah Von Dutch.

Japan
Maki Narumiya was injured from a Miyako Matsumoto double foot stomp during a tag match on last Wednesday’s Ice Ribbon show. The match had to be stopped when she suffered breathing issues… Former JWP Openweight Championship rivals Kana and Arisa Nakajima won the vacant REINA World Tag Team Championship last week, defeating Lin Byron and Syuri in a tournament final. Byron actually turned heel on her partner to facilitate the title change… Tomoka Nakagawa wrestled her final S-Ovation show on Monday ahead of her retirement in a couple of weeks. Called Last Shot, she and Kyoko Kimura lost to Aja Kong & Misaki Ohata in the main event…

Europe
Kay Lee Ray and Paul London went to a double DQ on Saturday’s Kamikaze Pro event when they double chokeslammed the referee before deciding that they were both winners… Speaking of KLR, she retained the Fierce Females Scottish Championship on Sunday when she pinned Leah Von Dutch. Elsewhere, Nikki Storm got past Hardcore Glamour’s Sara to try and get closer to another shot at Kay Lee, while Courtney beat Fiona Fraser in a Three Stages of Hell match to settle their differences. Fraser gave up the first fall via DQ when she used a chair and then got the quick tap out with an armbar when the contest went to submission rules. However, the subsequent Glasgow Street Fight was eventually won by Courtney when she made Fiona tap out to a Dragon Sleeper, beating her opponent at her own submission game. The next show is on January 11 when there will be Team Hardcore Glamour v Team Storm in a 5-on-5 elimination match… Destiny announced on Facebook that she is retiring from the ring after 13 years. She’s currently pregnant… Addy Starr suspects her hand may be broken… Viper, Violet O’Hara, Nadia Sapphire, Rhia O’Reilly and Ruby Summers have been added to Empress Pro’s debut show in January.

Mexico
Zeuxis defeated CMLL Mexican National Women’s Champion Estrellita last Wednesday. It was meant to be a title match but was downgraded. After the victory, Zeuxis demanded a title shot… Sexy Star defeated Ivelisse Velez on last Wednesday’s Lucha Underground. Having said that, there were some very marked edits in the contest. Sexy Star also appeared on behalf of the promotion at the Latin Grammys last Thursday.

Australia & New ZealandMadison Eagles won the vacant IndyGurlz Australia Championship on Friday in a 4-way also involving Saraya Knight, Evie and Demi Bennett. Eagles retained the strap the following evening by beating Knight in a singles match… KC Cassidy won the first Vera and Jenny Cup as part of Melbourne City Wrestling’s charity show on Sunday, beating Evie and Toni Storm in a 3-way in the final.

• Not much really. Paige and Alicia Fox used to be buddies, though that relationship went south when Paige failed to regain the Divas Championship from AJ Leeat Hell in a Cell last month. Meanwhile, Naomi and Cameron have been squabbling since the summer and Natalya is seemingly having problems with husband Tyson Kidd, who is seemingly more interested in his own success than his wife’s.

The Match

• Captains Natalya and Paige kicked off proceedings with headlocks and escapes before tagging out to Layla and Emma for a couple of sequences, before Paige took to the ring to establish dominance again, though an attempt to climb to the top did not pay off for the former Divas Champ, as she suffered a superplex from Emma.

• Cameron tagged in for the first time to attack the Australian but Emma made the tag to Naomi who flew into the ring with a crossbody. The match saw its first breakdown as all women got into the ring to fight and Naomi took advantage to eliminate Cameron with an O’Connor Roll.

• Summer Rae made her first legal appearance in the match to attack Naomi but Alicia Fox managed to get in and attack the three remaining heels with a running crossbody before dispatching Layla with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker.

• Summer Rae didn’t fare well against Natalya as she ate a low dropkick and discus clothesline for her trouble before tagging in Paige who had to quickly fight out of a Sharpshooter attempt with the help of Summer, who tired to imitate Paige with the knees in the ropes. It didn’t work out that well and didn’t impress her partner either. Emma got in to lock in the Tarantula and hit the Emma-mite Sandwich on Summer before executing the Emma Lock for the tap out, leaving Paige on her own.

• Not liking the odds, the Briton attempted to walk out but was thrown back into the ring by Emma, though Paige was able to get the edge before the Aussie tagged in Natalya, though she ate a big Paige super kick before rebounding with a German Suplex.

• Paige countered Naomi’s split-legged moonsault but walked into an Fox forearm before suffering Naomi’s Rear View and a headscissors spike to secure the clean sweep for her team.

Thoughts

• No real story to the match but it was fine for what it was. Paige was the star of the match as the story centred around a lot of Divas trying to get their hands on her or trying to impress her, in the case of Summer Rae.

• I can’t really say that anyone really elevated themselves though. Emma had a lot of ring time but her stock is unlikely to rise, while Naomi’s match-winning stuff doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. The match was what it was, and the commentators didn’t give a crap, talking about lame Survivor Series teams of years gone by. It showed you just how much interest you should have paid to the match.

WWE Divas Championship
AJ Lee v Nikki Bella

The Background

• Nikki Bella turned heel on sister Brieat SummerSlam and then defeated her in their first PPV singles match at Hell in a Cell in order to make Brie her personal assistant for 30 days. Following that, Nikki won a battle royal to become number one contender to AJ Lee’s Divas Championship.

• Most recently, Nikki has forced Brie to dress up as AJ to taunt her opponent, while AJ returned the favour on Friday’s SmackDown by coming out in Nikki’s gear.

The Match

• It wasn’t really a match. Brie got up onto the apron while holding the Divas Title just after the opening bell rang and kissed AJ. This allowed Nikki to nail the champ with a forearm and hit the Rack Attack for the title-winning pin. Brie seemed happy that her sister had won the championship, and the commentary team made out that this was like when AJ kissed Brie’s now-husband Daniel Bryan back at WrestleMania XXVIII, causing him to lose the World Heavyweight Title to Sheamus.

Thoughts

• So the heel turn and personal assistant thing was all a ruse so Nikki could win the Divas Title? Does that mean we’ve had three months of our lives wasted on this terrible storyline? Or does it mean that Brie has come round to Nikki’s way of thinking and is doing what she has to do to make things right with her sister? None of this was foreshadowed, so none of it makes any sense.

• More to the point, why do I care about Brie’s heel turn? It’s not like she’s been that sympathetic as a babyface so I’m not rattled by her actions here. There are too many question marks for me to even comprehend what’s going on. All I know is that this match/angle sucked.

2014 has seen a lot of women ascend to new heights and break into that main event echelon of wrestlers. It started in January with Ivelisse Velez scoring the SHINE Championship after defeating veteran Rain before going on a 10-month run with the belt, racking up more than a dozen successful title defences against the likes of Madison Eagles, Serena Deeb, Shanna, Saraya Knight and Mercedes Martinez. NCW Femmes Fatales has crowned a new International Champion in the form of Courtney Rush, who ascended to that main event status with a year-plus long war against Cheerleader Melissa, and cemented her spot as a top-liner by decisively beating Melissa on the promotion’s most recent show. In SHIMMER, Melissa’s reign as the champion came to a halt when she was eliminated first in a 4-way match which saw Nicole Matthews capture the gold and rack up a successful defence against Evie. The trio had been bubbling under for quite some time and this year has seen them be given the opportunity to take it to the next level. Last weekend, a fourth woman was added to the list.

Mia Yim had been the nearly woman when it came to winning a top title over the last 18 months. She was the losing finalist in the SHINE Title tournament last summer; she fell to Cheerleader Melissa in her SHIMMER Championship challenge back in April; she lost to NWA World Women’s Champion Barbi Hayden in July and she was defeated by LuFisto in her attempt to become Women Superstars Uncensored Champion last month. She even missed out on winning the SHINE Title back in May when she and Ivelisse went to a no-content on a Full Impact Pro event. However, her consistent performances and enhanced ability to connect with an audience did not go unnoticed and it culminated with her pinning Velez with a Package Piledriver on Sunday to win the SHINE belt in front of more than 10,000 spectators in Beijing, China as part of WWNLive’s tour of the country.

As I mentioned at the time, the match featured a range of styles like hard strikes, suplexes, submission holds and aerial moves as the pair were given a decent amount of freedom to show a curious audience what female wrestlers could do. It would be fair to say that the Chinese audience probably wasn’t that au fait with what professional wrestling was all about but I found it to be a pretty decent match with the exception of a couple of squirmy moments. The most obvious one was Yim’s 450 splash seeing her land on her feet and then flop onto a prone Ivelisse, who had spent a long time shifting herself on the mat to get into the right position for the move – it didn’t look good at all.

Mia’s title victory sets her up pretty nicely for 2015 and could be a harbinger of things to come. Yim has made huge strides in connecting with an audience, making moves matter and has also been trying to improve her promo skills – which is arguably the weakest part of her act – and she deserves a lot of credit for the measures she has taken to better herself over the year. However, it’s doubtful that she will score another big title in the near future as SHIMMER and Femmes Fatales have their own new champions that they will want to establish and push while LuFisto seems to be on a collision course with Sassy Stephie over the WSU belt – though Yim is in a prime position to make herself the figurehead of SHINE. Plus, when you consider that she is seemingly on WWE’s radar after working the most recent NXT tapings, it seems that there are a lot of bright prospects in store for the promising 25-year old.

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A quick heads-up: next week will be the 200th edition of the Ringbelles Roundup and I wanted to throw it open to you.

I’ll be answering questions on anything site-related that you wanted to know. If there’s something you wanted to know about Ringbelles, it’s inception, circumstances around interviews or whatever you like, get in touch by leaving a comment at the bottom of this week’s newsletter. I’ll pick a few examples and expand on them for next week. I look forward to reading the sort of things that you’re curious to know more about.

Got any news, results or upcoming events that you want to tell everyone about? Are you a female wrestler looking to tell us about upcoming bookings? Are you a fan who went to a show and saw a match, and would like to tell others about it – what you liked, what you didn’t and would like to encourage others to check it out for themselves? Would you want to discuss your feelings on any particular subject about women’s wrestling as part of The Soap Box? Send us an email!

Also, we add loads more links, video and thoughts on women’s wrestling on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like and follow us for even deeper coverage.

Meanwhile, if you want one of our t-shirts, click here and pick which shop is best for you. We have stores for the US/Canada (which also ships to Australia) and one for the UK and mainland Europe. Check out the Wrestling Yay, SHIMMER Like A Girl and No Limits 2.0 designs, as well as the Evielution and Free AK47 shirts which we are selling at cost price, and the brand new I Am Not A Bad Person and WoMan Up shirts.

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WWE
AJ Lee has launched her own website. Called aj-brooks.com, the URL is an amalgamation of her wrestling gimmick and her real-life married surname. Figure Four Online speculated that AJ may be on the way out of WWE – with a big indicator possibly being if she loses the Divas Championship to Nikki Bella at Survivor Series on Sunday. Speaking of which, Nikki made sister Brie dress up as AJ as part of an “exhibition match” between the pair on last night’s Raw, which essentially meant that it was meant to look staged. In the end, the real AJ – who appeared at ringside for commentary – distracted Nikki to allow Brie to score the surprise pin. Nikki then attacked her sister with AJ making the save before beating up Brie as well. It’s hardly the best way to sell that her title may be in jeopardy this Sunday, and hardly endears her in that she beats up on a put-upon Brie. In addition, that was Brie’s first singles pinfall win over Nikki in this feud, and it was thrown away as part of a bullshit match. This assistant storyline sucks… Paige edged out AJ Lee to top the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Female 50 list for 2014… The constant flip-flopping of Alicia Fox between face and heel continued during the European tour. While she worked babyface against Cameron on last Tuesday’s main event, she was on the heel side of six woman tags on the house shows… Alexa Bliss suffered a busted nose during her match against Sasha Banks, which was shown on last week’s NXT. Banks then cut a promo setting her sights on Women’s Champion Charlotte… Beth Phoenix spoke to WWE.com about her life as a mother, as well as her in-ring career, saying she enjoyed the heel role: “I always enjoyed being a villain more, probably because you get to do and say a lot of things you wouldn’t do in real life. And I felt like given what my physique and personality was, it kind of fit that way.” She also talked about her Divas of Doom partnership with Natalya, which had bags of potential but never really went anywhere, saying “We had been pitching and pitching to wrestle each other… We had been begging and begging and begging, but then it kind of became this organic thing where they just put us together and boom.” When asked about a possible return, she pitched out the old “never say never” line, but I doubt we will see her back… On a similar note, there have been indications that Maryse and Eve Torres are considering a return to wrestling.

TNA
Taryn Terrell beat Madison Rayne on last week’s Impact Wrestling when she avoided the Rayne Check and nailed her Cutter finisher. Earl Hebner – who Rayne manipulated during her last heel run but was not acknowledge here – was the referee for the match… On last weekend’s British Boot Camp, Kay Lee Ray found out that if she advances to the final 3 of the competition she will face Gail Kim in a singles match.

North America
Bishop is refusing to give Nicole Matthews a rematch for the Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling Title. Meanwhile, Cat Power has reached the finals of the Women’s Title tournament, which will be held on January 3… Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan has cut ties with RESISTANCE Pro, which he helped to found. The promotion has been very high on women’s wrestling since its inception and the Women’s Championship was the first belt to exist… Missile Assault Ant got ready for his Young Lions Cup final match against Heidi Lovelace next month by beating Kimber Lee in singles action on last weekend’s CHIKARA show… LuFisto will wrestle Jessicka Havok at the Queens of Combat 3 event on November 30. The pair were meant to wrestle at Women Superstars Uncensored’s Queen and King of the Ring event in May but Havok was banned from the promotion and stripped of the World Title for choosing to work for TNA on the day of the show… Kimber Lee will make her Inspire Pro Wrestling debut on January 4 when she takes on Jessica James… Amy “Lita” Dumas has been working with the female talent at Maryland Championship Wrestling. She worked there in her very early days under the name Angelica… Melanie Cruise and Mickie Knuckles wrestle on Friday’s Strong Style Wrestling for the vacant AIWF World Women’s Championship.

Japan
Tomoka Nakagawa wrestled more than 40 minutes on last Wednesday’s Pro Wrestling WAVE show as part of five singles matches as part of a retirement series. She won one, drew one and lost three.

EuropeSaraya Knight is the new DOA Sirens Champion. She beat Addy Starr as part of a World Association of Wrestling v DOA Wrestling show on Saturday. The title had been vacated after Penelope decided to take some time away from the ring… Lana Austin’s been using her charms to get an advantage. She beat Nixon Newell at True Grit Wrestling’s show on Saturday while her feet were clearly on the ropes – but the referee ignored it because he’s got a crush on Lana… Viper’s open challenge at a charity show for fellow wrestler Kris Travis saw her easily defeat Erin Night, so she demanded another opponent. That turned out to be Ruby Summers, who was also easily dispatched. Male competitor T-Bone then answered the call and put her away with a Tombstone – but not before she headbutted him so hard that she ended up with a massive lump on her forehead… Toni Storm returns to the UK at the end of this month. One of her first bookings is against Danielle Hunter for Futureshock Wrestling on November 30 with Hunter’s Women’s Championship on the line… Following in the footsteps of her Bellatrix counterparts, Chanel makes her Fierce Females debut on Sunday when she takes on Carmel Jacob.

Mexico
Amazona & Angelica defeated Dark Magic & Estrella Negra and Polly Star & Tsunami as part of a 4-team, one night tournament on Friday to win the vacant LLF Tag Team Championship.

Australia & New ZealandHarley Wonderland won the Riot City Wrestling Women’s Championship on Saturday by beating Demi Bennett in the main event of City Chicks Unleashed 3. Kellyanne English was meant to wrestle but suffered an injury just before the show… Congratulations to Jessie McKay, who got married on Sunday… Miami will step away from the ring after Friday’s Melbourne City Wrestling charity show. She faces KC Cassidy in a match which has been building up for a year as part of the three semi-final matches, with all three winners going forward to a triple threat final for the Vera & Jenny Cup.

A quick look at the fortunes of the two twin acts in women’s wrestling at the moment…

Nikki Bella won a Halloween Costume battle royal on SmackDown to become the number one contender to the WWE Divas Championship after Alicia Fox and Paige bundled each other out of the ring, handing Nikki the win. Brie Bella was advertised but was not there – the story was that Nikki sent her off to do charity work so she would not be eligible for a title shot.

Nikki beat Emma on last night’s Raw and then instructed Brie to slap titleholder AJ Lee, who was sitting at ringside doing commentary. Reluctantly, Brie did it and was knocked to the floor for her trouble before AJ went after Nikki, who scooted away.

We’re about a week and a half into this gimmick of Brie having to be Nikki’s personal assistant for 30 days after losing their match at Hell in a Cell, and I can see how it’s benefiting Nikki. She has had plenty of opportunities to show off her heel persona by bullying her twin about, abusing her and forcing her to do things which Brie feels are morally questionable – such as distracting Naomi on last week’s Raw. When you couple it with the fact that she has wrestled on both Raws and the SmackDown since Hell in a Cell and has been booked very favourably with her Rack Attack gaining her victories in the matches against Naomi and Emma, you can see how things are looking up for the “evil” Bella ahead of her title match, whenever that may be – presumably Survivor Series, as that will be day 28 of Brie’s service so she will still be at Nikki’s beck and call.

However, I’m struggling to see how Brie will come out of this looking more impressive. Her strong set is her wrestling and she’s not doing any of that, while her character and promo ability is a country mile behind her sister, so she’s being overshadowed in any segment where personality needs to be shown. She’s also being put in humiliating segments and was left laying with just one AJ Lee forearm, which doesn’t do much good for her credibility. It seems as if Brie Mode* has been disabled and won’t be as functional when it is reactivated. Perhaps her redemption will come if Nikki wins the Divas Championship and Brie beats her to take the title, but she will have to do a lot to overcome how flaccid she is looking at the moment.

*By the way, let us not forget the true meaning of Brie Mode is to be disgustingly drunk and a complete embarrassment to friends and family, not to engage a new level of toughness as is what it seems to imply on WWE TV rather than on Total Divas.

**

Kasey and Leah Owens were put through to the UK finals of British Boot Camp 2 but they were on shaky ground for a while when they fluffed their wrestling drills, though they pulled themselves together and shone during the freestyle segment. They had originally impressed with their charisma and also had the judges warm to them when Leah said she would step aside for her sister if only one of them could go through, which Samoa Joe said was “very noble”. They billed themselves as the “anti-Blossom Twins” as they are more rock and roll and less about cupcakes, and the Blossom Twins were pretty much buried by Gail Kim as she said they were about to be called up to TV and they quit. I don’t know how true that is, but it looks like Hannah and Holly won’t be back any time soon.

Miss Louise Jane and Skarlett were also featured in a montage of rejected contestants – the former was portrayed as a bit arrogant, and described herself as “100% English beef” and dismissed Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland, despite having the Union Flag on her gear rather than the St George’s Cross, while the latter was perceived as a bit scary and also talked about her age.

Kasey and Leah will take on Nikki Storm and Kay Lee Ray in an 4-way match on Sunday’s broadcast in a match which took place back in August. We were there and we can tell you that it was a hell of a showing, and we’ll have a report after it’s broadcast.

I have to say that this series has been excellent so far. The audition process has been entertaining and helped the viewer to learn a bit about each person and helped you to develop an impression of them, be it positive or negative – and there haven’t been any wholly shocking auditions designed to poke fun, which is welcome. If TNA had only the same sort of treatment had been applied to Havok, who still hasn’t had any sort of promo time yet – fans would have been able to connect with her in a much stronger way.

Got any news, results or upcoming events that you want to tell everyone about? Are you a female wrestler looking to tell us about upcoming bookings? Are you a fan who went to a show and saw a match, and would like to tell others about it – what you liked, what you didn’t and would like to encourage others to check it out for themselves? Would you want to discuss your feelings on any particular subject about women’s wrestling as part of The Soap Box? Send us an email!

Also, we add loads more links, video and thoughts on women’s wrestling on our Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Like and follow us for even deeper coverage.

Meanwhile, if you want one of our t-shirts, click here and pick which shop is best for you. We have stores for the US/Canada (which also ships to Australia) and one for the UK and mainland Europe. Check out the Wrestling Yay, SHIMMER Like A Girl and No Limits 2.0 designs, as well as the Evielution and Free AK47 shirts which we are selling at cost price, and the brand new I Am Not A Bad Person and WoMan Up shirts.

**

WWEPWInsider reports that Triple H is high on Alexa Bliss at the moment. Sasha Banks is also getting positive reviews but it’s said they want her work to be less stiff. Bayley and Charlotte are also getting a lot of love but it’s said that Bliss and Banks are more favoured than Bayley… Paige defeated Natalya on last week’s Main Event and licked her face during the match. Creepy. Tyson Kidd was also on commentary during the match and talked about himself for most of the match, ignoring his wife in action… JoJo was the ring announcer for the house show in Syracuse, NY at the weekend. Alicia Fox beat Paige on the show… AJ Lee and Lilian Garcia had travel issues getting to Buffalo, NY for Raw. Emma and Renee Young also lost their luggage. Garcia also worked the show with a respiratory infection… Fans at last night’s NXT house show said that Charlotte’s successful defence of the Women’s Championship over Sasha Banks stole the show. Charlotte’s making a habit of it.

TNA
Madison Rayne officially turned heel on last week’s Impact Wrestling. The heavy teasing began two week previously when she pulled Taryn Terrell’s tights to become number one contender to the Knockouts Championship and the pair teamed up on last Wednesday’s show but Rayne refused to tag in during their match against the Beautiful People. In the end, Madison walked into the ring, knocked down Angelina Love & Velvet Sky before booting Taryn in the head and delivering the Rayne Check (Barbie Crusher) before leaving the ring, allowing Love & Sky to get the win… TNA is holding a Twitter Q&A on Friday with Havok, Taryn Terrell, Reby Sky & Veda Scott ahead of the Knockouts Knockdown PPV being made available later in the day. Scott and Marti Belle are currently being profiled on the company’s website.

North America
SHINE has announced that it’s 24th show will take place on January 23 next year. It had already been revealed that SHINE 23 will be on December 5. Amber O’Neal and Crazy Mary Dobson return at SHINE 23 – hopefully their story will continue following O’Neal’s heel turn on Dobson at SHINE 20 in June. Tina San Antonio also returns to the promotion for the first time since SHINE 7 in February 2013, while Vanessa Kraven will make her debut… Heidi Lovelace advanced to the finals of the Young Lions Cup on Saturday after beating Eddie Smooth in the first round and then winning the 6-way semi final. Kimber Lee also qualified for the 6-way by beating Eddie Smooth. Lovelace will face Missile Assault Ant in the final on December 6… Candice LeRae & Joey Ryan advanced in DREAMWAVE’s Tag Team Tournament on Saturday by beating the Osirian Portal in the first round… Seleziya Sparx regained custody of her dog Peanut after beating Jasmin in a Ladder Match at Alpha 1 Wrestling on Sunday. You can see the whole feud by clicking here… Hometown hero Nicole Matthews main-evented Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling’s Port Coquitlam show on Saturday, defeating Jaida… Jenny Rose will challenge LuFisto for the Women Superstars Uncensored Championship on Saturday. Tessa Blanchard and D’Arcy Dixon will make their debuts on the card – Blanchard challenges Niya Barela for the Spirit Title while Dixon wrestles Mickie Knuckles a day after they face off in a steel cage for the RESISTANCE Pro Women’s Championship… Alternative Wrestling Show and Wrestling Cares Association is bringing back the Race for the Cup tournament, which was won last year by Katarina Leigh… Kimber Lee and Cherry Bomb may be great teammates, but they face off at Beyond Wrestling on November 29 with their regular male tag team partners. Kimber Lee and Drew Gulak will battle Cherry Bomb and her husband Pepper Parks.

JapanAyako Hamada and Yuu Yamagata regained the Pro Wrestling WAVE Tag Team Championship on Wednesday by beating Tomoka Nakagawa and Kyoko Kimura. Hikaru Shida also retained her Regina Di Wave and Revolution Championship Wrestling Titles in her match against Mari Apache… Riho won the IWA Triple Crown Championship on Sunday, defeating Emi Sakura in the main event of Gatoh Move’s show… Tomoka Nakagawa was unsuccessful in her challenge for the OZ Academy Openweight Championship, losing to titleholder Tsubasa Kuragaki on Sunday… Successful defences for the Wonder of Stardom and Goddesses of Stardom Champions yesterday – Mayu Iwatani beat Miho Wakizawa while Nanae Takahashi & Kairi Hojo retained their belts by beating former World of Stardom titleholder Io Shirai & reigning champion Yoshiko. Kellie Skater also made her Japan return on the show, beating Reo Hazuki.

Europe
Nikki Storm beat Kay Lee Ray in a No DQ contest on Friday and Pollyanna Peppers on Saturday to retain her Pro Wrestling: EVE title in a return for the promotion as part a collaboration with XWA Wrestling. Also on the Saturday show, Rhia O’Reilly defeated Addy Starr and KLR beat Jimmy Havoc in a hardcore match… Pollyanna was meant to wrestle Jinny at PROGRESS on Sunday by her opponent said she was injured and couldn’t compete, but attacked Pollyanna as she left the ring. The pair will wrestle on January 4… Two more Pollyanna notes – she challenges Addy Starr for the Interpromotional Women’s Championship at British Empire Wrestling on November 16, and she is going to be called out by Chris Walker on Pro Wrestling Chaos’ show on the 29th. Miss Peppers may be the busiest female wrestler in the UK at the moment… Viper will defend her Showcase Pro Wrestling Women’s National Title against Leah Owens on November 29… After holding two exhibition matches, Empress Pro has announced that it will hold its first full card on January 17. Bete Noire and Nixon Newell have been announced… Nikki Storm, Viper, Lana Austin & Kay Lee Ray will face off in a 4-way for PAID Promotions on December 7.

Mexico
Sexy Star was featured in the debut episode of Lucha Underground last Wednesday. She lost to Son of Havoc in a short match which was preceded with a video package introducing herself and that she wrestles to inspire every girl who needs an inspiration. It was a great introduction which WWE and TNA could do well to emulate.

Australia & New Zealand
Cremator & Vixsin beat Siren Monroe & Tommy Hellfire in a mixed tag match at Melbourne City Wrestling’s 4th Anniversary Show. KC Cassidy defeated Miami on the same show… Michelle K Hasluck returns to the ring on Friday after a year away to have a child. She teams up with Kira Sommers against Miss Fortune & Daisy Chayne for Snakepit Pro Wrestling.